DailyDirt: Live Performances Get Attention, Sometimes For Being Kinda Bad...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

How do artists create a viral meme? The answer might be the same as the infamous: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Practice! But no matter how many dress rehearsals or practice takes you do, a live performance is still a risky venture. Here are a couple examples of some live performances gone awry, along with some strategery for virality:
  • The Broadway version of Spiderman is falling into the same trap as big budget movies -- except the audience can't exactly "pirate" the live performance. Still, a budget of $65 million seems like a risky bet for a comicbook-based musical. [url]
  • Susan Boyle needs a re-take when she burps(?) while singing. [url]
  • OK Go's Damian Kulash is still figuring out more ways to create viral videos -- demonstrating that it can take months to create the perfect single-shot performance for YouTube. [url]
  • Mashable points out some viral video tips. Tip #6: Be frugal. [url]
  • But maybe any publicity is good publicity, especially if you sell knock-off sunglasses on the internet. [url]
  • Most true fans will understand that everyone makes mistakes...
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    Filed Under: performances


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    • icon
      Michael Ho (profile), 3 Dec 2010 @ 4:57pm

      apologies in advance...

      That last link goes to a NYT page -- which will probably give folks a login prompt... I don't think there's a way around that anymore for NYT links, so I'll try to avoid NYT links in the future.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Mike C. (profile), 3 Dec 2010 @ 5:17pm

        Re: apologies in advance...

        No biggie, but thanks for the warning. I've been running into the NYTimes login page for a couple weeks now and have stopped clicking when I know that's the destination. Sucks to be them I guess because I always get the news elsewhere. For example, there's already a follow-up to the NYT article:

        http://theweek.com/article/index/210037/googles-decormyeyes-scandal-problem-solved

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2010 @ 7:38pm

        Re: apologies in advance...

        ya, but why are you still obfuscating links? thats bad. stop doing it.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Mike Masnick (profile), 3 Dec 2010 @ 7:49pm

          Re: Re: apologies in advance...

          ya, but why are you still obfuscating links? thats bad. stop doing it.


          The unobfuscated links are included at the end of each line.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2010 @ 8:08pm

            Re: Re: Re: apologies in advance...

            that doesnt really answer the question.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

            • icon
              Mike Masnick (profile), 4 Dec 2010 @ 3:30pm

              Re: Re: Re: Re: apologies in advance...

              that doesnt really answer the question.


              Mike's a scientist. He likes data. Using a URL service lets him get data. I believe he's offering both to satisfy folks who don't like to use those. I'm not sure why there's still a complaint. If you want to avoid the URL shortener, you can, but for those who don't, Mike can get an idea of how many people are clicking. What's wrong with that?

              link to this | view in chronology ]

              • identicon
                Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2010 @ 7:23pm

                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: apologies in advance...

                link obfuscation messes with search rankings.

                also, every time you hide something from me, I trust you less. thats a universal truth.

                link to this | view in chronology ]

                • icon
                  Michael Ho (profile), 5 Dec 2010 @ 12:21am

                  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: apologies in advance...

                  Dear Anonymous Coward who hates bit.ly links,

                  I've included the long version of the link as a [url], so if you really don't want to use the shortened links, it's easily available for you.

                  I'm not trying to hide anything from you. In fact, by using these shortened links, more information is available to you. If you add a "+" at the end of any bitly link, you will get a page of the clickthrough statistics (and the full URL is also revealed on that page, too).

                  As for "messing" with search rankings, if you'd like me to switch to google's URL shortener (eg. goo.gl URLs), I'd be willing to do that, too. But given that bitly's data are public for every link that it shortens, I would guess that bitly is more "search engine neutral" -- allowing Bing, Google, etc to know what the long URLs are.

                  Maybe you don't like your clicks going through a Libyan domain? In that case, Goo.gl URLs shouldn't have that problem (nor should j.mp URLs).

                  Ultimately, I'm interested in knowing what topics are popular with the Techdirt audience (besides copyright/trademark issues). If you don't want to participate in my experiment by clicking on the shortened links -- again, I've included the long URLs at the end.

                  Hope this helps,

                  Mike

                  link to this | view in chronology ]

                  • identicon
                    Anonymous Coward, 5 Dec 2010 @ 5:30am

                    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: apologies in advance...

                    I appreciate your response. I have expressed my opinion, you have listened to it and deemed it irrelevant.

                    I will bother you no more about it.

                    link to this | view in chronology ]

                    • icon
                      Mike Masnick (profile), 6 Dec 2010 @ 2:01am

                      Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: apologies in advance...

                      I appreciate your response. I have expressed my opinion, you have listened to it and deemed it irrelevant.


                      I don't believe Mike has deemed it "irrelevant" in any way, shape or form. Saying such is unfair. He explained his reasons for why he does what he does, and has taken your points into account and explained how he tried to minimize each and every one of your concerns.

                      At this point, it's not clear what your complaint still is.

                      link to this | view in chronology ]


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